Kings want to make it harder on Vegas’ Marc-Andre Fleury in Game 2

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Golden Knights goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury makes a save as Kings left wing Tanner Pearson parks in front of the goal during the first period of Game 1 of their first-round playoff series on Wednesday in Las Vegas. The Kings hope to put more traffic in front of the Vegas goalie in Game 2 on Friday night. (AP Photo/John Locher)

LAS VEGAS — Statistics show the Kings out-shot the Vegas Golden Knights 30-28 during the Golden Knights’ 1-0 victory Wednesday in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series at T-Mobile Arena. That’s only part of the story.

Yes, the Kings had some good chances. But Coach John Stevens said post-game there weren’t enough obstructed opportunities, that Vegas goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury could see most of what was coming.

Net-front presence. It’s what the Kings need to have more of Friday when they take on the Golden Knights in Game 2 at 7 p.m. at T-Mobile. The Kings talked about that Thursday after practice, as well as their upbeat frame of mind.

Not that the Kings never had anyone around Fleury and the net, there just wasn’t enough of it.

“Yeah, we had a couple of shots from the point that you could tell he saw it all the way,” defenseman Christian Folin said. “At the same time, you could tell that a couple of times we got real good traffic; he had a hard time locating the puck.

“If we keep doing that, we’ll score some goals.”

Forward Dustin Brown had two of his team’s shots. He credited Vegas for making it tough to create havoc around its net.

“They played well, boxed-out well,” said Brown, whose team will be minus defenseman Drew Doughty on Friday. Doughty on Thursday was suspended one game for an illegal check to the head of Vegas forward William Carrier in Game 1.

So what’s the answer?

“This time of year, it’s just a matter of will to get to the net,” Brown said. “We got there a few times, but it needs to be more consistent.”

Forward Anze Kopitar had a couple of good chances to score on Fleury, to no avail. In his mind, the 30 shots notwithstanding, his team was just not in Vegas’ zone enough.

“Just get there,” he said, when asked the about the formula for net-front traffic. “It’s hard to have a net presence if you’re not spending a whole bunch of time in their zone.”

Kopitar suggested that forcing the Golden Knights to defend their zone more could result in some goals. He also said accomplishing that is not a piece of cake.

“As soon as you do that, it’s a lot easier to get to the net just because of the time spent in there,” he said. “I’m not saying it’s easy to bully your way to the net, but it’s more opportunities to get there.”

Despite having dropped the opener, the Kings seemed relaxed Thursday. It was an optional skate, so some of the players were in a hallway at T-Mobile, having some fun kicking around a soccer ball.

Defenseman Dion Phaneuf was one of the few regulars on the ice. It was mentioned to him that the team seemed loose. He used another term to describe its collective mental state.

“I don’t think loose is really a word … I think we’re focused,” he said. “We know that we’ve got more, we know that we’ve gotta work on a few areas.

“But with saying that, we did do a lot of things well. And it was a good hockey game; it came as advertised. I thought both teams played hard and it’s going to be much of the same tomorrow.”

Brown had an even better synopsis of the situation that made perfect sense.

“You could look at it a lot of different ways,” he said. “We win tomorrow night, it’s 1-1, we have home ice.”

There are no worries, Folin said.

“We’ve got a good feeling,” he said. “It’s been a good feeling all along, all year. It’s the best out of seven, so just focus on the next game, think about what we can do better tomorrow and get back out there and play.”

After Friday, the series shifts to Staples Center, with Game 3 there on Sunday and Game 4 there on Tuesday.